And on the seventh day…

… the Canadiens practised, a scheduled day off erased by head coach Guy Carbonneau. Yesterday featured a video session and back-to-basics on-ice workout for the Canadiens, who tomorrow night face the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre.

Today, the Canadiens make their annual holiday visit to the Montreal Children’s and Ste. Justine’s hospitals.

I have been reading all your comments, and decided to put in my 2 cents worth.
My opinion. Carbo should not be calling out his players as he has done in the past two weeks, especially Price. This is a fragile team already. Look in the mirror Carbo. Dealing with veterans and/or rookies are two different things. As a coach you should be able to deal with both. As it looks, YOU CAN’T. Being a great player does not mean being a great coach.

#1=Learn how to deal with veterans.
#2=Learn how to teach youngsters.
#3=Never call out players.
#4=Stop blobing at the refs.
#5=Stop mixing up all the lines.
#6=If you can’t handle it, BYE BYE.
#7=I am sick and tired of hearing you say “I sleep comfortable at nights”, maybe you really don’t care.

I am sure some of you will disagree with these comments, yes we do have a bright futur, and all these prospects will be better in couple of years, but I personally do not believe that Carbo is the one who is capable of achieving this goal. Thank-you.

Lots of people seem to be calling for Carbonneau’s head these days. I think we have to ask ourselves an honesty question before we do that. Do we want him fired because he doesn’t really possess the skill to be a head coach or do we want him fired because our team isn’t really as talented as we think it is and somebody has to pay the price for the Habs mediocrity. In fairness, I think we need to take a step back and try and objectively answer that question before we make him walk the plank. For me personally, I feel that our present roster(those are the only players we should judge Carbo’s performance by) reflects a talent pool that would put us in the middle of the pack in terms of the Eastern Conference standings. It will be touch and go to make the playoffs from now until April. I also felt the Carbo would learn from last year’s experiences and that would be reflected in the team’s overall play. Right now it seems to be one step forward, one step back. The calling out of players publicly and the constant lines changes within the same game get on my nerves. How do other guys on this site see it? Is it Carbo’s inferior coaching or just that we really aren’t as talented as some devoted fans might think? Ultimately, the answer to that question will decide Carbonneau’s fate.

I also think there was nothing wrong with what Carbo said after the game. This is the NHL, and these are men, not boys. Price made a mistake or 2 and so did Chipchura…so be it.
It’s ok to say, and it’s ok that they made mistakes. We have a lot of young players that are learning. Is that Carbo’s fault? No. Is it Carbo’s fault that Ryder has 3 goals? No.
The future looks good, but we have to be patient. I also believe we do need to trade for that one 40 or 50 goal scorer as I don’t think any of our young guns are that guy….maybe Higgins, I’m not sure.
These are growing pains, and like it or not, our Habs are growing. Stay on the bandwagon, and we’ll all celebrate together in 2-4 years.

yes thats right considering the habs only brought us 24 cups n countless memories.we should bring something to the habs.the best teams should have the best fans.to support them twice as much when they need it.not turn our backs.get with it people. no one likes to get kicked when they r down (well maybe some of yas do) but the majority does not.give them no choice but to pick up their play in a positive way.
especially if it becomes excess.quit all the b.s an show em that “WE R THE BEST FANS IN HOCKEY”. you all havent heard the last of this. thanx dtd, your negativity inspires me.

well i guess its safe to say that the habs r going threw a little bit of a rough stretch.now other than conditioning,how can a team poss go from over 500 man games lost due to injurie in a year to say,85? everyone expects the team to win regardless.
those guys that wear those beloved habs uniforms r not robots.as much as some of you would like to think.just because they make 3 4 mil a year does not instantly turn them into superheros.you think that the team is going to advertise that so n so has an injury? i know i wouldnt.i personally think that those who complain all the time really dont know much about hockey.yes there r only so many excuses they can get away with.wether you r right or not,the team really dosen’t care what you think. now how about this instead of constantly running players out of town, how about say show your support? how can the fans help ryder get out of his slump? now that would be more challenging,and rewarding.now everyone has their opinion but the best opinion would rule. a banner with something positive. a few banners with strong support.now that could make us the best fans in hockey, thus players might actually want to play here.or is that all just wishfull thinking?

dear dtd: i dont see a problem so much with your comments, its all the name calling that i find rather disrespectful.so in other words how can we take you seriously,when your so defensive? calling someone a turd will not earn one’s respect for one,oh and the only difference between someone with a padded bank account and someone who dosen’t is,between their ears.in your case, you should find a profession that pays 500,000 a year,would you be happy then? you take hockey waaaaaaaaay to seriously. deal with personnal issues first,then when you r ready to talk to people on an even level people will respect you. i bet you get really mad really easy.by the way ,,,,,,, nice tie.

There is no simple cut and dried answer as to why this team has all of a sudden gone off the rails. I think first of all that with the early success of this team this year, many fans got just a little too excited a little too early. This team is not ready for prime time. The team is in a building mode, whether Saku Koivu likes it or not, that’s for him to deal with. Young players are being inserted into the lineup, and older players are being weeded out. Why then is Brisebois and Smolinski here? You would have to ask Bob Gainey that question, but I don’t think it would be wise not to have a balance of older and younger players on the team. Players such as Brisebois and Smolinski are not here long-term. More younger players are being slowly inserted. Not at a fast enough rate for some of the readers here, but they don’t have to be accountable. Gainey does.

Re: Guy Carbonneau,
Is Carbs the right coach for this team? Should they fire his *ss right now? I don’t think firing the coach is the right move at this time. I’m sure that Carbo and Gainey are on the same page when it comes to what systems the team will play. As stated above, this is a learning process for the younger players…I will not question what lessons Carbo and Gainey are teaching these kids. These two gentlemen have ample hockey knowledge and experience, and I don’t think they need any advice from any knowledgeable hockey fan. Knowledgeable, but in the end….just a fan! Fans are accountable to nobody. I definitely do not agree with everything Carbonneau does. I hate the constant line juggling. In fact, that would be my one and only criticism of Carbo’s coaching. I feel he should have found his lines by now, and chemistry class should now be over. That is only my opinion. I have no idea what goes on in the room, or in practice. So to answer the question, should Carbonneau be fired…I say no, and it will be Bob Gainey who will ultimately and eventually fire him. Every coach is hired to eventually be fired, with very few exceptions!

These are some of my opinions. I will not feel that I have to post them over and over and over again, everday, like some on here. I don’t have a need to be noticed.

lol, how about we hire JFJ so he can sewer the Habs now that he’s f-d over the Leafs for the next decade. WE DEMAND A BAND AID SOLUTION IMMEDIATELY. if the Habs don’t fire the coach or they don’t trade a pick and a prospect for an underachieving 35 yr old by chirstmas I refuse to buy tickets any longer. that will show them.

please,

oh one more thing, when’s the last time an organization who drafted no one useful in the first round for 8 years and patched up non-contenders just to make a brief appearance in the first round ever been able to turn it around in only a few years? it’s going to take a decade to clean up the mess left by gainey’s predecessors.

I don’t think any of us are in a position to comment on Gainey’s state of mind. If ‘personal issues’ were a problem his integrity as a man would have him step aside with a leave of absence. Life has dealt him some tough cards to play and I feel he has shown total class throughout his ordeals.

It is interesting that you only consider a team – ‘a team’ if we win the cup. It is not the same every year. Players changes, rules change, coaches change but our expectations never change. Everybody should just take a deep breath and relax. Every team will go through it’s fair share of slumps over the course of the season (Ottawa comes to mind immediately), so calm down! Can’t you see why this is a tough city to play in? Not only do the players have to contend with 21000 booing fans, but about 100,000 different coaches and gm’s. I’m sick and tired of hearing all these comment about Carbo and Gainey during this recent slump. We’ve been using the same system ALL YEAR LONG, with great success initially might I add, and NOW everyone wants to talk about how unsuccessful the offseason was and how stupid gainey is, and how inexperience carbo is. Do us a favor; spare the real fans who want to read constructive criticism and interesting observations from having to sort through all your garbage first.

as long as it takes. you can’t just decided it’s over now because you’re an impatient child. if you like the JFJ model of trading away the future and signing who ever is available to insanely long and big contracts … take your crap to TO and help sink that ship.

you’ve got to be kidding me. this team won’t win this year, it won’t win next year and it might not win the year after that. boycott a non playoff team because they’re not contenders 6 months later ? LOL … ya, i wouldn’t have signed here either if I were Briere or Smyth.

if there were less clowns like you in Montreal, Gainey might actually have a shot at rebuilding properly. Instead we get people losing their minds like Leafs fans becase the Habs can’t magically buy a playoff spot and demanding that he slap some more bandaid solutions on it.

Perhaps a one-game boycott should be organised. You’d need to plan it weeks in advance and pick a mediocre team without star players (that leaves Nashville, Florida, Buffalo, and the Habs).

Then someone (Boone) would need to deliver a Churchill-esque speech to convince EVERYONE that we’re right, and that they should let their already-purchased season tickets go unused for the sake of ultimately bettering the team (we will defend our island, whatever the cost may be).

Maybe have a high-profile moneybags (Stubbs) offer to buy all the tickets back from the fans. Then you get a bunch of orphans (scrawny ones mind you) to light the unused tickets on fire right as the Media is doing the pregame “here’s what the outside of the arena looks like” footage. When the media comes up to Jean-Sans-Nom (Mio in disguise) to find out what’s going on, he says “it’s cold out, there were all these Habs tickets lying around, and our first thought was that they would burn well.”

Come to think of it, Stubbs can get a pretty sweet tax deduction out of this with the right accountant. Everybody wins. We’ll still need a few scrawny, sad-looking, deer-eyed volunteers to play the orphans.

Actually come to think of it there’ll be 30 perfect candidates only a few metres away…

So, fellow Habs fans, we are in our annual slump. The difference is it has arrived quite a bit earlier than in the previous couple of seasons. What does this mean? Does it mean we our team is worse or better? Is it too early to tell? Or, does it not mean anything at all? I guess time will tell.

Keep Ryder with the Koivu line and let the team claw out of this funk. If Markhov isn’t really “injured” he just needs to make some mental adjustments. I think O’Byrne should dress and basically take breezer’s place. His game has tailed the past month. Did anyone notice the 3rd goal against Detroit was a result of Brisebois flinching away from the play, afraid to get hit by the puck, and screening Price as a result?

Some of you people are big crybabies. The team drops a few games and there you go…wah wah wah. Get a grip will you. In spite of playing piss poor in the last little while, the Habs are only 7 points out of first place in the conference. The league is very competitive due to the salary cap, but Gainey has managed to stock the system with some first rate prospects. He hasn’t been unable to do more because free agents don’t want to come here…high taxes, high pressure, etc. But we are on the cusp of something great here.

Price, Chipchura, Kostitsyn, Grabs, O’Byrne, all playing in their first year. A core of solid and talented players about to blossom. And here we have a bunch of crybabies whining about firing the management because we lose a few games and a bunch of rookies are not performing like 10 year veterans with 2 or 3 Stanley Cup rings on their fingers. Show a little patience will you? You act like a bunch of leaf fans…mortgage the future for a bit of instant gratification. Our time will come. Maybe if the boobirds gave them a standing ovation instead of organizing a boycott, they would snap out of the current slump.